The description of seeing coloured orbs of light has parallels in occult & early UFO literature. In fact early reports of UFO literature are simply technologised occultism based on a Theosophical worldview.
The question to ask about this is whether these parallels increase the likelihood of what Elizondo describes being real, because it's phenomena supported by other historical witness reports, or whether this new stuff he's reporting -at this late stage in his public statements- is simply carefully calibrated unfalsifiable embellishment to conform more fully with experiencer literature for the purpose of selling a book and promoting a dubious UFO threat narrative which is provided with full knowledge that these claims can't be tested. They're not measurable by cameras or science. (Even Uri Geller gave us some bent cutlery to ponder over).
Some examples include:
- Orfeo Angelucci - one of the earliest UFO contactees wrote in his book The Secret of the Saucers (1955) about green orbs descending to create a screen before communication with a UFO. (Carl Jung dedicates more than a dozen pages to Angelucci's story in this book Flying Saucers (1959)
Green orbs feature in his UFO encounter [bold added]:
Elsewhere the colour Green seems significant:
It appears to signify some kind of transmission / communication device:
A more closely matching description can be found in Jenny Randles research.
In The Pennine UFO Mystery (1983) we hear reports of:
Randles coins the term
Psychic Toys to describe these orbs of light seen by UFO percipients.
Another witness says:
Alan Godfrey, police officer and UFO witness - under hypnosis describes a childhood 'dream' of a
ball of light in his bedroom.
In John Mack's
Abduction (1994) we see a similar description from an abductee:
Elsewhere, abductees refer to Tinkerbell-like dancing balls of light they'd seen in their youth.
- Green light emitted from Faery Knolls. Grassy hillocks which appear to emit light from open doorways, signifies some kind of window to another world.
Supposed medium
Eileen Garret (1893-1970), wrote about a similar perception in her memoir
Adventures in the Supernormal. [ISBN: 1-931747-01-6]
- NB: Is this book what Elizondo is referring to in his attempt to distinguish "paranormal" from "supernormal"? (People living in earlier times couldn't understand today's tech e.g. a cell phone, but they'd still be able to measure it's dimensionality, colour weight etc - "paranormal" things defy all measurement (image capture), so I think he's simply wrong about that).
Here the '
Psychic Toys' are referred to as '
The Children'. In addition to seeing them she describes being able to see auras around people and plants (IIRC a concept later popularised by
The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield (1993)).
She also saw orbs or "Globules of light" in her home:
Additional suggested explanations:
- Synesthesia (the crossover of senses i.e hearing colours, seeing sounds) although how this might be temporarily triggered in multiple witnesses in one location makes this seem unlikely.
- Tectonic strain in rocks (earthlights).
- John Keel referred to geographical areas that saw more psychic activity as "window areas" where people witnessed floating light balls.
- Ball Lightning: For example see this survey of ~300 observations: Hungarian Ball Lightning Observations [See illustrations of the path some balls took, however Green is not part of the description] https://egely.hu/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/HungarianBallLightningObservationsKFKI-1987_LQ.pdf
To quote from it:
This is most consistent with temporal lobe epilepsy - specifically simple partial seizures. But edging toward complex partial seizure.
As I explained in another thread... I have first hand experience because I have idiopathic mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. (Although I seem to have outgrown it. Mostly.)
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/pattern-of-beeps-on-a-white-orb-video.13296/page-2#post-308055
Formed visual content (a distinct, glowing object) suggests involvement of association visual areas, likely in the temporal-occipital junction or posterior temporal lobe.
Vague blobs and so forth may be simple hallucinations... like flashing lights, static, or vague visual noise.
The feeling that the object is conscious or responsive is characteristic of temporal lobe phenomena, where limbic system activation (especially the amygdala and hippocampus) can blend memory, perception, and emotion.
"Zooming off" or sudden movement is common in hallucinations related to seizure activity.
The emotional or mystical quality - the sense of a presence or agency - is a known feature of temporal lobe epilepsy, especially of the right temporal lobe.
Formed hallucinations (like a colored orb) typically arise from ventral visual stream involvement.
The perceived intentionality or agency (e.g., "it reacts to my thoughts") implies paralimbic or limbic system activation — common in temporal lobe seizures.
No loss of consciousness suggests it could begin as a simple partial seizure (aura), or remain isolated in focal aware status.
I've been fascinated by my own experiences so I've put a good deal of effort into understanding this. So here goes...
The right temporal lobe plays a critical role in nonverbal, emotional, spatial, and holistic processing. Compared to the left hemisphere, the right is more specialized in integrating emotional and sensory information in a way that shapes intuitive and affective understanding of the world. Seizures originating in the right temporal lobe are more likely to produce affective or mystical experiences, including feelings of profound fear, awe, or spiritual insight. This region is closely tied to autobiographical memory, spatial awareness, and the brain's ability to distinguish between the self and others.
In my mid-teens and 20's I'd often get multiple sessions of this kind of mystical experience per day, which I labeled
déjà vu, but was more in line with
déjà vécu and
Presque vu. With some
jamai vu thrown in. Sometimes it was almost constant. Lasting about 20-30 seconds per session.
I often also saw sparkly blobs. Always green. And sometimes hovering around the heads of people. In ordinary situations during the day.
The amygdala and hippocampus are essential structures responsible for emotional salience and the binding of memories to emotional context. During a simple partial seizure (located in specific areas) these areas are hyperactivated. You can get a flood of intense emotional states such as fear, euphoria, or awe. Good luck for me, it was almost always awe. Or
Sense of Wonder as we old-timey Science Fiction Fans called it. But I could get brief flashes of panic. Worse, I'd get feelings of sadness associated with feeling sorry for people or a kind of intense nostalgia.
You can also get vivid
experiential hallucinations—perceptions that feel like real memories or emotionally charged visions. Mystical experiences. What you're thinking about at the moment is charged with
Meaning. I can't explain it better than that. You just have to live it to understand it.
Hyperactivation can disrupt the normal boundary between the self and the external world, leading to the deeply felt impression that there is another presence in the room or that your thoughts are being observed or influenced by an external agent. I only got that during the boundary between sleep and wakefulness.
Another important structure is the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). It integrates sensory and proprioceptive information, allowing the brain to maintain a stable sense of the body in space. When the TPJ is disturbed it can produce out-of-body experiences or the compelling illusion that another entity is nearby. I've had lots of out-of-body experiences, but only when about 3/4 to 9/10 asleep.
The sense of an external presence can arise because the brain misinterprets its own internal signals as coming from outside the self. The resulting perception can be so powerful and convincing that individuals describe it in spiritual, supernatural, or extraterrestrial terms.
In combination, the right temporal lobe, medial limbic structures (such as the amygdala and hippocampus), and the temporo-parietal junction form a network that, when dysregulated, can produce complex and emotionally charged hallucinations, mystical visions, and powerful sensations of being watched or accompanied by an unseen presence. These neurological events underscore how the brain constructs not only perception and memory but also the boundaries of selfhood and the social world.
Visual hallucinations
The ventral visual stream extends from the primary visual cortex (V1) in the occipital lobe forward through the inferior temporal lobe. The primary role is to recognize and assign meaning to visual stimuli: identifying objects, faces, shapes, colors, and complex patterns. While the dorsal stream processes spatial and motion-related aspects of vision ("where" and "how"), the ventral stream processes the content and identity of what is seen.
When this pathway is disrupted, spontaneous visual imagery can arise that is vivid and structured. For instance, a seizure discharging in the inferior temporal cortex (particularly in areas involved in object and face recognition, such as the fusiform gyrus) may result in the perception of glowing orbs, human-like figures, or even symbolic visions; called formed hallucinations because they are organized and resemble recognizable objects, as opposed to simple hallucinations (like flashing lights, static, or vague visual noise), which are usually produced by discharges in primary visual cortex (V1) or the dorsal stream.
It seems pretty solid to me that there's a strong connection between TPE and all sorts of Woo.
Bob Bigelow did at least that much.
